Hyphen or not

[Rio]

If I want to write that a player double jumped two rating positions because he won more matches than anyone...

Should I use a hyphen in double-jumped

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

How about using outmatch-ed rather than double jumped.

*He had won in a streak and outmatched for two rating-positions up.

*He outmatched for two rating-positions up after won in a streak.

But I still prefer the first one. Plain.

Anyone wants to add?

Budi

[susabelle]

Actually, a easy trick to remember is that you rarely use a hyphen unless the two words are at the end of the sentence. I can't remember the exact rule as it applies, as I didn't pay a whole lot of attention in my grammar classes.

So, in your sentence, there would be no hyphen.

[marketeer]

If I want to write that a player double jumped two rating positions because he won more matches than anyone...

My best advice is to say:
...a player jumped two rating positions because he won more matches than anyone...

Leave the "double" out because you're being redundant using both "double" and "two."

[Rio]

:) Thanks, Marketeer. I see what you mean about repeating. Writing it your way is better. But it still doesn't answer the hyphen issue.

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

:) Thanks, Marketeer. I see what you mean about repeating. Writing it your way is better. But it still doesn't answer the hyphen issue.

I prefer avoiding hyphen if possible. One failure of the attachment will make the statement is widely different.

[DanielScocco]

Here is what the editors of the Oxford dictionary wrote about it in 1911:


We have also to admit that after trying hard at an early stage to arrive at some principle that should teach us when to separate, when to hyphen, and when to unite the parts of compound words, we had to abandon the attempt as hopeless, and welter in the prevailing chaos.

So I guess you could use the hyphen or not in that situation.

You do use an hyphen on four-legged animals, for instance, but I am not sure how close the two examples are.

[Rio]

Double-jumped is a term widely used in tennis. A tennis player's standard of play is determined by their rating. A player who has a good season can move up one or two places depending on their results over 6 months. Double-jumped is tennis speak (or should that be tennis-speak) for a player who moves up two places. I always write double-jumped, but then in a magazine I saw it spelt double jumped. Hence, the search for some sense. Thanks everyone.

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

In that case, I suggest using a hyphen is better. Look carefully at the construction.

Without a hyphen,

Subject + ("???") + Verb (past) + ...
A player + double + jumped + ...

In the skirmish of reading, some people may refer "double" to "jumped".
But some others will scratch their heads and think, "the 'double' word smells fishy, what's the function in here?"

Even if someone refers it as an adverb, it shall use "doubly" and not "double".

Subject + adv + Verb (past) + ...
A player + doubly + jumped ...

Now compare with the hyphen one,

Subject + Verb (past) + ...
A player + double-jumped + ...

Clear and plain. Which one is better?
:)

best regards,
Budi

[--Deb]

I agree with Budi. I would definitely use a hyphen.

I've never heard the trick Susabelle mentions, though. WHY would you not use a hyphenated compound unless it's the last two words of a sentence?

--Deb